dammit, willamette

Inviting public discourse in Eugene can be a two-edged sword, Moll and Ziller acknowledge. There will be people who want a river flowing free without constraints, sitting down with those who own property along it and who bear the brunt of impacts when the river shifts its flow. But public involvement wards off a worse problem, Moll said.

“When you’re dealing with public resources, the biggest danger is apathy,” he said.

The “open spaces” concept isn’t just about the parks, trails and other recreation facilities along the river, said Jeff Krueger, a landscape architect with Lane Council of Governments, which is organizing Tuesday’s workshop. It also involves private land owners, whose practices can have significant impacts.

The planning effort is much like the Rivers to Ridges project LCOG organized in 2003, Krueger said. That was a coordinated effort by local planners to map out potential parks, trail systems and habitat restoration projects from Fern Ridge to the Coburg Hills and from Creswell to Junction City.

Such plans may feel a little squishy because they have no regulatory teeth. They don’t require that anyone do anything, Krueger acknowledged.